Featured Expert

Dr. Emmanuel M. Luna is a Professor of Community Development (12) at the College of Social Work and Community Development, (CSWCD) U.P. Diliman. He is a UPRI Fellow and is assisting the UPRI in establishing its Education and Training Office. He is a licensed environmental planner and a Fellow at the Philippine Institute of Environmental Planners. Dr. Luna is a Co-Editor of the Disaster Prevention and Management International Journal, published by Emerald and indexed in Scopus. He finished BS Community Development in 1979 as cum laude, MA and PhD in Urban and Regional Planning in 1986 and 2000, respectively, all in UP Diliman. He was also a United Nations Fellow at the United Nations Center for Regional Development in Nagoya, Japan from November 1989 to May 1990.

Dr. Luna has been in the field of disaster management and disaster risk reduction (DRR) and management since 1990 when the Central Luzon earthquake hit the communities he was working with in Nueva Ecija. He was instrumental in integrating disaster risk reduction and management in the Community Development discipline by developing courses, researches and publications, and public service in government and non-government organizations, communities and people’s organizations. His researches and publications are in the areas of community-based disaster risk reduction and management, disasters and education, local and indigenous knowledge in DRR, disaster accountability platforms and disaster recovery in infrastructures. Dr. Luna received prestigious academic awards such as the 2018 Outstanding Faculty Researcher in CSWCD, the U.P. International Publication Award (8 times), U.P. Centennial Professorial Chair Award (4 times) and the ONE Professorial Chair Award for Outstanding Research and Public Service for 2016-2018. He now sits in the Board of Trustees of the Center for Disaster Preparedness and Operation Compassion and represents the CSWCD as one of the conveners of the Disaster Risk Reduction Network Philippines (DRRNet).